Temporal and Phylodynamic analyses of the 2026 Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ebolavirus Bundibugyo ebolavirus
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Temporal and Phylodynamic analyses of the 2026 Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa – DRC and partners

Context

On 15 May 2026, the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially declared a Bundibugyo Virus Disease (BVD) outbreak in Ituri province, DRC. This represents the 17th Ebola disease outbreak in DRC and the second caused by Bundibugyo Virus (BDBV; the species Orthoebolavirus bundibugyoense). With the 2007 outbreak in Bundibugyo district, Uganda, and the 2012 BVD outbreak in Isiro, DRC, the ongoing outbreak is the third documented BVD outbreak.

A previous post described the initial genomic epidemiological and phylodynamic analysis of the genome data available. This topic provides updates for additional genome data as it is produced.

A preprint has been published which describes the background, the sample collection, the sequencing and the analysis for genomes from 686 PCR-confirmed individuals from 22 of the 55 health zones with documented cases between May and August 2026:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.07.26365001v1

The data used in this paper are accessible from Pathoplexus using the SeqSet BDBV_DRC_20260831, are available at https://doi.org/10.62599/PP_SS_4291.1, and should be appropriately cited in any publications that use these data. Use of the data is governed by the Pathoplexus Data Use Terms: Data Use Terms | Pathoplexus.

Authors

Key contributors to data collection/molecular testing/data interpretation/whole genome sequencing/bioinformatics analysis/phylogenetic analysis, and manuscript writing:

Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa – DRC and partners

Tony Wawina-Bokalanga#1,2,3, Pierre Akilimali#4,5, Jonathan E. Pekar#6, Pascal Adroba-Tandele#7, Adrienne Amuri-Aziza1,2,3, Eddy Kinganda-Lusamaki1,2,8, Daan Jansen3, Bernardo Gutierrez9, Ciara Judge9, Olga Ntumba-Tshitenge10, Joshua Quick11, Diallo Amadou Mouctar10, Samuel Wilkinson11, Jean-Claude Makangara-Cigolo1,12,13, Marcel Lola-Loway14, John O. Otshudiema15, Nicksy Gumede15, Félix Mulangu16, Justus Nsio17, Prince Akil-Bandali1, Jepsy Yango1, Dav M. Ebengo1, Tania Bishola Tshitenge1,18, Cris Kasita19, Joelle Ngalula-Mudiayi4, Mathias Mossoko4, Pauline-Chloé Musuamba-Kayembe1, Lievin Tibasima-Dhesa7, Princesse Paku-Tshambu1, , Sabue Mulangu20, Pius Z. Kabututu2, Olivier Tshiani-Mbaya1,2,21, Dieudonné M. Mvumbi2, Marie-Roseline Belizaire15, Anne W. Rimoin22, Lorenzo Subissi23, Martine Peeters8, Ahidjo Ayouba8, Mosoka Papa Fallah17, Kevin K. Ariën24, Sofonias K. Tessema25, David Blazes25, Nicholas J. Loman11, Caroline Colijn26, Olivier le Polain de Waroux23, Joseph L-H. Tsui9, Cathal Mills9, Ellie Bourgikos9, Samuel V. Scarpino27, Áine O’Toole6, Renny Doig26, Guy Baele28, Nohelia Navarrete29, for the Ebola outbreak response consortium*, Christian Happi30,31, Laurens Liesenborghs3,28, Miles W. Carroll9, Georges L. Mvumbi2, Daniel Mukadi-Bamuleka1,2,32, Piet Maes33, Christian Ngandu4, Jason Kindrachuk34, Dieudonné Mwamba4, Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum1,2, Steve Ahuka-Mundeke1,2, Koen Vercauteren†3, Moritz U.G. Kraemer†9, Andrew Rambaut†6, Placide Mbala-Kingebeni†1,2,17,35

# Contributed equally as first authors
†Joint Senior Authors

  1. Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  2. Faculty of Medicine, University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  3. Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

  4. Institut National de Santé Publique (INSP), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  5. Kinshasa School of Public Health, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  6. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK

  7. Laboratoire Provincial de Santé Publique, Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  8. TransVIHMI, Université de Montpellier, INSERM, IRD, Montpellier, France

  9. Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

  10. World Health Organization Country Office, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  11. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

  12. Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

  13. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

  14. Division Provinciale de la Santé, Ituri, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  15. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

  16. Direction Surveillance Epidémiologique, Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  17. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  18. Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  19. Programme National de Lutte contre les Fièvres Hémorragiques Virales, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  20. Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, Miami, Florida, USA

  21. Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA

  22. Department of Epidemiology, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  23. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

  24. Virology Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

  25. Gates Foundation, Seattle, USA

  26. Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada

  27. Institute for Experiential AI, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

  28. Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

  29. Culmen International, Alexandria, VA, USA

  30. African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria

  31. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria

  32. Rodolphe Merieux INRB-Goma Laboratory, Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo

  33. European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium

  34. Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

  35. South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Acknowledgments and Funding

We thank the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare of the DRC. The authors gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the World Health Organization, and partner non-governmental organizations. We also acknowledge the support provided by the Unité de Gestion du Programme de Développement du Système de Santé (UG-PDSS), the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) through Belgian Directorate-general for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD FA5 project, the Culmen International LCC, the US CDC Atlanta, and the Agence Française de Développement through the AFROSCREEN project (grant agreement CZZ3209), coordinated by ANRS Maladies Infectieuses émérgentes in partnership with Institut Pasteur and Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs through FEF programme and support provided by Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. AREBO project funded by ANRS-MIE. A.A.-A is supported by a DGD sandwich PhD scholarship. N.L., S.W., J.Q., C.K., R.D., C.C., E.H., J.E.P., A.O’T., A.R & P.M-K. acknowledge the support of the Wellcome Trust through the ARTIC Network (award 313694/Z/24/Z) and the Gates Foundation. The authors are also grateful for the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Flu Lab, and a cohort of generous donors through TED’s Audacious Project, including the ELMA Foundation, MacKenzie Scott, the Skoll Foundation, and Open Philanthropy.